


More like Ourselves

by Daegaer



Category: Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, Explosives, Hand Jobs, M/M, Psychic Abilities, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-02-16
Updated: 2007-02-16
Packaged: 2018-02-15 00:26:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2208732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagi thinks he's long past his childhood. He'd like to convince Schuldig of that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More like Ourselves

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [](http://louiselux.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://louiselux.livejournal.com/)**louiselux** for beta-ing!
> 
> _We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves_ \-- May Lamberton Becker

Nagi'd always known he was special. Sister told him that every day, till she was murdered. He was her special little boy. What he could do was scary, but it wasn't so scary when Sister told him it was a gift from God, and he was her own precious little angel. When she was murdered he was just a homeless freak. Again.

And now he was standing in a country he'd never heard of before today, in a school for special children, and the terrifying young man who'd whisked him out of Tokyo was _swapping_ him for a wild-looking teenage boy who he thought was more special than Nagi.

"Don't be jealous," Crawford-san said, frowning down at him as the three of them walked down a hallway painted institutional green and into a sparsely-furnished room full of children. They all looked bigger than Nagi. The girls looked just as mean as the boys.

"I'm not jealous," he said.

"Schuldig says you are. He says you're not to worry, it's natural for a little kid to feel nervous in a new school."

"He doesn't know anything about me," Nagi muttered, not looking to the right. He could _feel_ the older boy's smirk.

"He's a telepath. That means he can tell what you're thinking."

Nagi looked to the right. Schuldig winked. Nagi glared and thought of the words that would make Sister wash out children's mouths with soap. _Fuck you, you shit_ , he thought.

Schuldig laughed and said something to Crawford-san, who snorted with dry amusement. "He said he gets the gist, and returned the compliment in German," Crawford-san said. He bent down to look right in Nagi's eyes. "Obey the teachers, learn quickly, and I'll come back for you. I promised you revenge, and that's what I'll give you. OK?"

"Does anyone here speak Japanese?" Nagi whispered, suddenly aware, really _aware_ he was about to be abandoned in a foreign country.

"You'll have to learn German and English," Crawford-san said. "You're a clever boy, it'll be all right."

Nagi swallowed, and held himself still, afraid he'd make something fall over and look like a fool who couldn't control himself. "Goodbye, Crawford-san," he said, and bowed. "Goodbye, Schuldig-kun," he added, and didn't bow. He wasn't going to be polite to someone who thought he was just a kid.

Crawford-san smiled, like he approved of rude boys.

"Sayonara," Schuldig said, in a horrible accent.

The other kids waited till they were gone, then they started laughing, and bowing exaggeratedly, and talking nonsense Nagi was pretty sure was meant to sound like Japanese. He ignored them till a boy twice his size shoved him hard. _Start as you mean to go on_ , Sister had always said. Nagi flung him through the glass panel in the door. There was a pause, and then every kid in the room jumped him.

Nagi started fighting in earnest.

 

\- ~ - ~ - ~ -

 

"Naoe!"

"Yes, _sir!_ " Nagi yelled, jumping up from his desk.

"Nieman!"

"Yes, _sir!_ "

Nagi stared at the blackboard as the roll-call went on. The lesson ahead would be stupid and boring, he thought. He was the only student who had completed the assignment correctly – all the others had left traces of their intrusion into the security system, and now he'd be penalised by having to sit through endless explanations of where the morons had gone wrong. It was a _stupid_ system to say no one could be accounted a success in the class unless they all could. _Team-work,_ he sneered. Who needed it? He could hack into anything himself, he didn't _need_ back-up. He looked at the door as a girl hesitantly came in.

"Excuse me, sir. Naoe is wanted in Testing."

"Yes, yes," Herr Gantz said. "Go on, Naoe. And wipe that insolent expression off your face or you can go straight to Colonel Amlisch's office afterwards."

"Yes, sir," Nagi said, keeping his face blankly respectful. He shoved the girl out of his way as he exited the room.

"I hope they lobotomise you," she muttered, rubbing her elbow. She didn't try anything, though. No one did, anymore. And it had only taken six broken arms, three broken legs and one broken back.

Testing seemed to be deserted. That was itself probably a test. Nagi scanned the area for traps before cautiously going into the waiting area. He could break into the schedule, he thought, looking at the computer. He could find out what he was supposed to be here for. They might want him to do that, or they might punish him for it. He'd been given breakfast that morning, he thought. It was unlikely they were going to carry out a medical procedure, or at least not a serious one. He vacillated – how badly would they punish him if he just sat there when he _was_ supposed to find out for himself what to do? Unauthorised access to the computer system was a very serious offence.

He'd just have to make sure they couldn't prove anything.

He pulled a pair of latex gloves out of his pocket and sat at the desk, tugging them on. It wasn't _too_ difficult to get onto the system, though it took longer than he liked to hide the fact he'd done so, and to replace that part of the security recording with a view of a safely empty room. He allowed himself a smile as he started searching, then swore quietly. He had to be on the other side of the compound in ten minutes. It normally took ten minutes at a brisk walk, and he still had to make sure he hadn't left any evidence here. He focused, and worked as quickly as he could. Six and a half minutes, he thought, looking at the clock as he slipped from the room. If he took a short-cut –

He sprinted down the corridors, throwing doors open before him, through the kitchens – off-limits, but being late would be worse – pausing only the second it took to fling the gloves into the waste disposal, leapt five metres across Amlisch's private garden and landed running, then put every last bit of strength he had into getting to the knot of adults in the distance in the few seconds he had left.

"Good afternoon, Mr Waters," he said in breathless English as he skidded to a halt. Waters looked at the stopwatch in his hand, then put it away without comment. Good, Nagi thought. He must have made it on time.

"How did you know to be here, Naoe?" Waters said.

"I had a feeling, sir."

"A well-timed one. There's a bomb in that building. Disarm it."

Nagi didn't waste time, just went in – carefully – and did as he was told. His hands were shaking. He'd recognised the men with Waters. For day after day, week after week, he'd dreamt of Crawford coming back and taking him back to Japan. It had taken months before he'd stopped hoping. _Three years_ , he thought. _Three years you left me here, you son of a bitch_.

_Oh, quit whining and let's see if you're any damn good._

He nearly dropped the pliers. The voice in his head was unfamiliar and amused. Waters wasn't a telepath, so it looked as if – Nagi pretended he needed to search his memory for the name – it looked as if Schuldig was saying hello. He disarmed the bomb, found the second one he hadn't been told about and disarmed it too, then went back out, quiet and respectful.

"Well?" Waters said.

Crawford looked up from the file he was reading.

"Yes," he said.

Just that, and Nagi's schooldays were over.

 

\- ~ - ~ - ~ -

 

"What does this moron want with women, anyway?" Nagi muttered, going over the files. _What a perv_ , he thought, looking at the things the man did to the women he got his pudgy, sweaty hands on.

"You'll understand when you're older," Schuldig said with a sleepy, superior tone. The deserted canteen was drenched in sunlight, and he'd been dozing on and off for the last hour. He could also have sat anywhere else in the whole room, but was sitting right beside Nagi, probably just to be annoying.

" _Thanks_ ," Nagi said with heavy sarcasm. "I _meant_ he's rich, he's powerful – doesn't he have better things to do with his money and time than this _clumsy_ rape and mutilation hobby?"

"Listen to you, Mr Old and Jaded. Nothing excites you, does it?"

Nagi raised an eyebrow and concentrated on looking just to the side of the screen. He'd seen the photos. Hell, he'd seen the aftermath and Crawford had made him levitate what was left all the way to the furnace, making sure no stray blood got anywhere to leave DNA evidence. It was pretty gross, but it wasn't any of his business, so why should he care?

"It's OK to be grossed out by it."

"I'm not."

"Sure."

Nagi seethed. Schuldig kept treating him like he was a little kid who'd get upset by the things they saw and did. Screw that. He hadn't been a little kid past the end of his first day in Rosenkreuz.

"If he'd let us pick up the women for him he wouldn't risk getting caught," he said casually. "I'm just worried about the risk to our paycheques."

"Maybe Mr Takatori will find us someone less stupid to baby-sit," Schuldig said peaceably. "Hey, can I play Freecell on your laptop?"

"I'm _using_ it," Nagi sighed, fending Schuldig off as he tried to lean in and shut down Nagi's work. It was too warm and quiet to start wrestling. A door slammed at the other side of the room, and they both looked round. Crawford stood there, arms full of files, a laptop precariously balanced on the top. He looked rumpled and sweaty, tired and irritated.

"Hey, have either of you ever heard of a group called _Weiss_?" he yelled.

"No. What sort of music do they play?" Schuldig said.

"Asshole," Crawford said. Nagi wondered how he could ever have thought of him as aloof, unreachably adult. "They're some sort of terrorist group Mr Takatori wants us to deal with. We're going to Tokyo in the morning."

"Tokyo?" Nagi said. "There are German terrorists in Tokyo?"

"Hey, you're a Japanese terrorist in München," Schuldig said and ruffled his hair.

"Just get Farfarello out of storage and make sure he's drugged enough to travel," Crawford said as Nagi ducked away and glared. "And stop lazing round, we have plenty to do before we go."

" _I_ was working," Nagi said, but Crawford just left, the files slipping and putting his laptop in even more danger. "Great," Nagi muttered. "I look like I was wasting as much time as you."

"Don't sweat the small stuff, kid," Schuldig said, stretching and then shrugging into his jacket. "Now let's go get Farfarello. He's not small stuff, so don't make any sudden moves around him."

"How come I haven't seen him before? How come no one tells me anything?" Nagi said, closing down the laptop and pulling on his own jacket. He didn't need it, but he was damned if he was going to look like some underdressed kid.

Schuldig grinned and slung an arm about his shoulders. "Come on, let's go get the black sheep of the family."

 

\- ~ - ~ - ~ -

 

Tokyo felt weird. It was home, and it wasn't, and Japanese and German fought for dominance in his brain till he gave up and thought in English. _God_ , it was annoying. Nagi grimly sat in front of his computer, forcing his brain to dredge through Japanese sites till he was fairly sure he wouldn't speak like a tourist. He'd spoken the damn language for the first ten years of his life. It'd come back properly. Soon.

"D'you want a beer?"

"Yeah," Nagi said, and scowled. "Speak Japanese."

"We have a particularly fine vintage in, let's see, Kirin and Heineken, and a passable few bottles of Carlsberg, not to mention some cans of absolutely shitty Budweiser," Schuldig said in German.

"Heineken," Nagi said, cradling the bottle safely as he added in Japanese, "You're not as funny as you think, you know." It was galling how good Schuldig had got in Japanese in three years, he thought. At least he hadn't got as good in the language as Nagi had in German and English.

"You're just too immature to recognise my comic genius," Schuldig said absently, staring into the depths of the fridge as if it held the meaning of life. "But don't mind me, I'm not the one who forgot his mother tongue."

"Suppose I stuffed you ass-first through the fucking keyhole?" Nagi said sweetly in English.

"Hey, if you want to _prove_ you're too much of a kid to take a joke . . ."

Nagi took a swig of his beer and turned grimly back to his reading. He was saved from further comment or further work by Crawford and Farfarello coming in.

"How was work, dears?" Schuldig sing-songed.

"Good," Crawford said.

"Good," Farfarello echoed, quiet and dreamy. "One of Takatori's minions had been a naughty little boy. Takatori said I could take my time. He said I could be inventive. I got to try out a couple of things I want to do the next time I go to church. I didn't have any proper thorns for the crown, but barbed wire's pretty good. I need to go easier on the whipping bit, though. Otherwise they pass out too quickly. And then –" he started laughing, a quiet hitch in his breath, not much more. "Every tragedy needs its moments of comic relief so the audience will fall further into horror – the man had this electric pencil sharpener, and I got his hand and –"

"You'll frighten the kid," Schuldig said brusquely.

"I'm not a kid," Nagi said quickly, just as Crawford opened one of the Budweisers and added,

"He's not frightened."

"Well," Farfarello said, a little smile playing about his mouth. "Use your imagination. Things are always worse in the imagination than they are in reality." He paused. "Unless I'm there, of course."

"Give it a rest," Schuldig said. "You're a badass, we all know that. Nagi doesn't need to hear the details."

Nagi looked at him. He seemed sincere, like he thought Nagi needed coddling. Nagi leant in closer, holding tight to his beer. "Tell me," he said.

"You'd be surprised just how fast those things can pare down to the bone when you jam someone's little finger in there," Farfarello giggled. "You should have seen his _face!_ " He glanced evilly at Schuldig, adding, "The other minions were so relieved it wasn't them they started making suggestions. Mostly things no virgin ears should hear. Want to know which of them seemed most appealing?"

"Sure," Nagi said, keenly aware of Schuldig's disapproval.

 

*

 

That night he clawed his way out of terror-laden sleep and staggered, still drenched in sour sweat, out into the living room. Schuldig was sitting in the softest armchair. Wordlessly, he held out a bottle.

"No more beer," Nagi said thickly.

"It's Coke."

Nagi downed it in one go, glad of the sickly sweet taste. It was room temperature, as if Schuldig had been sitting there for a while.

"I told you not to listen to him," Schuldig said.

"It's not that," Nagi said, glad it was the middle of the night and the lights were out. He couldn't have said anything in the light. Fragments of the dream came back, horrifying and enticing. Schuldig would already know, he thought. He might as well say it. "I wanted – in the dream I sort of wanted him to do those things to me. When I woke up –" his voice trailed off in shame.

"Oh," Schuldig said in casual dismissal. "Wet dreams don't mean anything. You can borrow some of my magazines, you'll have better dreams then. If you ask nicely, I'll even let you see the ones with girls in them." He smiled slightly. "It's just a dream. You don't have to start worrying that you're a sick fuck unless you want that sort of stuff when you're awake."

"Yeah," Nagi said wearily. "I'm going back to bed." He paused at the door. Schuldig was still looking at him, his clothes rumpled and his hair sticking out more than usual, like he'd been waiting for Nagi for hours. It was a relief, Nagi realised, an utterly shaming relief that someone thought he was still a kid who needed to be looked out for. The others clearly thought he could handle what they threw at him. He wished he could. He also wished he could just go up to Schuldig and hold on tight, but he'd look more like a kid than ever. "Thanks," he said, wanting to say more.

"Any time," Schuldig said quietly.

 

\- ~ - ~ - ~ -

 

"When do we go after those terrorists?" Nagi said, poking at his cornflakes.

"I'm still analysing the data," Crawford said. "They've made trouble for some of Mr Takatori's associates. I think Farfarello and I should be able to neutralise them soon enough – I've been laying information out for them to pick up on. We'll wipe out their little cell." He went quiet, then said, in a far-off voice, "Though they'll just recruit new members, stupid young idealists –" He shook himself. "Huh. Well, it keeps us in a job."

"You and Farfarello? What about me?"

"There's another associate of Mr Takatori's to be dealt with today. You can observe Schuldig at work. Where _is_ Schuldig?"

"Asleep," Nagi shrugged. "What's to be done with this associate?"

"The dossier's on the bookcase," Crawford said, standing up and pulling on his suit jacket. He smoothed it neatly over the shoulder holster. "I'll be with Takatori all day – I won't be back till this time tomorrow. Remind Schuldig to see to Farfarello's medication, and don't get in his way during the killing."

"No," Nagi said neutrally, and waited till Crawford was crossing the road far below before rushing to the bookcase. There was a post-it stuck to the front of the dossier.

  
_Take Nagi with you. Don't let him risk himself. He's to observe only. C._

Nagi crumpled it up and threw it in the rubbish. Then he sat down with the dossier and read it very carefully, taking neat notes. By the time Schuldig appeared, scrubbing his eyes and yawning theatrically, Nagi had several possible plans of attack laid out.

"Crawford has someone he wants us to kill," Nagi said, tapping the dossier.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. He said something about a job," Schuldig said and wandered off to get breakfast. He came back with a steaming mug and the remains of the previous night's take-away. "So what've we got?"

"A merchant banker," Nagi said calmly, thinking clearly and strongly only of how good it would be to do _something_. "An electronic trail's already been laid showing he was embezzling money and involved in narcotics. Stupid. I could have done it better, no question."

"I'll go in, give him a gun and make him blow his brains out," Schuldig sniffed. "You sure you want to come along? It makes a lot of mess."

Nagi rolled his eyes. "Takatori wants something flashier that'll have the whole city – the whole _country_ talking. Crawford says it's to distract everyone while the embezzled money gets put to good use. I think we should blow up the company's building."

"OK," Schuldig said. "Sounds fine to me. You can handle demolitions, right?" Nagi allowed the faintest of smiles to creep onto his face. "Fair enough," Schuldig said. "Those are scenarios you've worked out? Let me have a shower and we'll go over them." He stretched, and headed for the bathroom.

Nagi blew out the breath he hadn't quite known he'd been holding. Schuldig hadn't even questioned him, he thought triumphantly. He must have an honest face. He smirked; he'd just have to appear honest for the rest of the day.

 

\- ~ - ~ - ~ -

 

"We'll put the explosives here, here, here and here," Nagi said, pointing at the blueprints. "The whole building'll come down."

"That's a lot of innocent bystanders you're going to kill," Schuldig said, like he was suddenly the voice of the moral majority.

"Who cares? It'll just be more of a distraction. We're wasting time, let's go!"

Schuldig nodded and went over to the supply room. Nagi made a mental note that he'd ask Crawford for his own key. Schuldig started hefting out boxes of Semtex from the back of the room, raising an eyebrow as Nagi just watched. "Tell me when," he said.

Nagi waited till he had it all out. "You can put those back," he said, pointing at the last several boxes. Schuldig sighed and did as he was told. Nagi checked everything over, sorting out detonators and timers. He felt – jaunty, he decided. Killing people was more fun than he should probably be happy with. Schuldig sniggered.

"Yeah," he said. "I love my work too. You get everything together, I'll make us a packed lunch."

"No diet drinks," Nagi said absently. "Some of us don't need to watch our weight."

"Oooh, aren't we a little bitch today? Full-fat Coke it is."

 

*

 

Schuldig put music on in the car, something fast and rhythmic he said would get them in the mood. Nagi spent the time going over the plans he'd copied, noting exactly how much of the explosives he'd need for each area. He'd quintuple-checked everything already, but it didn't hurt to be thorough. He looked up in slightly irritated surprise as Schuldig patted his knee and shook him lightly.

"You're in a tiny, murderous world of your own," Schuldig grinned. "I said, we're here."

Nagi bounced out of the car and slung an explosives-filled backpack over his shoulder, making it weigh hardly anything. He made Schuldig's weigh a lot more, which was funny, especially when Schuldig caught on.

"You'll never be as funny as me," Schuldig grumbled. "Come on."

It was handy, having your own telepath, Nagi decided. He got them past the security cameras, but Schuldig bamboozled people into thinking they had a right to be there, or just outright made people forget they'd ever seen two guys skulking round.

"I don't skulk," Schuldig said. "Now _you_ , you skulk. It's the natural gait of the teenage boy." He hunkered down, the better to get in the way of Nagi's preparations. "Very neat," he said approvingly.

"OK," Nagi said. "That's the final one. I'm starving, let's have lunch."

"Sure," Schuldig said. "I'm sort of hungry too –" His voice died away as he stared into space. "Shit."

"Schuldig?" Nagi said, then Schuldig grabbed him and dragged him to the door. "What the hell?"

"Cops," Schuldig said. "People are freaking out about the cops raiding this place. You're sure the bombs are hidden well enough?"

"Yeah," Nagi said. "There's nothing the cops will want in this room – if anyone looks in here they'll just go away again, right?"

"We can't fucking delay," Schuldig muttered. "We'll need to bring it down fast. Can you redo the timers?"

"I can bring it down any fucking time I want," Nagi said, holding up the radio controller. "Imagine their faces - _oh shit, thirty seconds to go, will the heroic bomb control expert make it?_ Then, _boom_ , game over."

"You watch too many films," Schuldig grinned. "Let's get out of here. You can get us through alarmed doors, right?"

"Oh, please," Nagi said in disgust, leading the way.

 

\- ~ - ~ - ~ - 

 

"Fan _tas_ tic," Schuldig grumbled, listening to the news on the tiny radio Nagi had pickpocketed from the growing crowd. "You were right about you hiding that electronic trail better – someone found it and alerted the police."

"Maybe Mr Takatori wanted an extra level of distraction," Nagi said, his mouth full of the chicken sandwich Schuldig had packed for him.

"Yeah. Or maybe his useless son leaked it before he was meant to – he's just been quoted on the news as being 'shocked and appalled.' Moron. Hey, half that chocolate's for me."

"At least we have a good view," Nagi said. He half-smiled in pleasure. The whole thing had been as easy as the practicals in school, though the results were going to be a hell of a lot more interesting than the endless analyses of student projects. The building should come down like a house of cards, he thought. It'd be cool. Schuldig put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey. Guess who's out there."

"There's a whole crowd of over excited idiots out there," Nagi said, making himself comfortable on the windowsill and looking out at the people who were all so _thrilled_ to see a police cordon, and serious looking cops carting out boxes and computers.

"The target's _kids_ , that's who's out there. They're so _worried_ and _outraged_ , and starting to get _ashamed_ ," Schuldig said dreamily. "It's really something. Want to see?" His hand slid from Nagi's shoulder to rest on Nagi's neck, his thumb stroking lightly over the jugular. Nagi drew a breath to tell him to keep his hands to himself, then swallowed as fears and embarrassments, all filtered through Schuldig's enjoyment of them, flooded him. The girl was just worried for her father, the boy was worried, and ashamed that people might know who he was just by looking at him. Schuldig cast his net wider then, and Nagi's heart sped up as the nasty, prurient excitement of the crowd swept through him. People were hoping for guns, for justice, for a spot of police brutality they could be shocked over later, some pervert was feeling up a woman pressed against the barriers, she was too scared and ashamed to do anything, he was fondling her, she was trying to wriggle away, he was pulling her skirt up, unzipping himself –

"We need to get a move on," Nagi said hoarsely. He shook Schuldig's hand away, hoping he wouldn't notice his arousal. He could still feel the touch of Schuldig's hand on his skin. He took a breath and jammed his earplugs in.

"Sure," Schuldig said, smiling directly out at the target's son, who was looking in their direction. "Do it."

Nagi pressed the button.

The sound was as good as it always was, loud and forceful. Even better was the feeling of air rushing outward and the force that propelled chunks of masonry out into the crowd. A slab of concrete came straight at their window and Nagi sent it bouncing away again. Every square centimetre of his skin felt prickly and alive; he was aware of the tiniest movements of the air, of the dust, of Schuldig's elation beside him. It felt _great_ ; he couldn't stop a grin from breaking out. The building crumpled in on itself, half of it sliding down into the street, taking the target, his workers and dozens of surprised cops with it. Nagi let himself feel bones breaking, skin rupturing beneath the onslaught of rubble, imagining he could feel life itself leaving his victims in tiny, regretful puffs. Better than sex, he thought triumphantly, not caring when Schuldig laughed at him.

"You're so – glowy," Schuldig said.

"It's probably an unconscious telekinetic manipulation of dust particles," Nagi said, striving for bored unconcern but sounding gleeful and satisfied. He uncoiled from the windowsill, still feeling the force and destruction playing over his skin.

"No, it's more _afterglowy_ ," Schuldig said, entranced. He reached out and ran light fingers across Nagi's lips. It made Nagi feel more tingly than ever. Screw being worried about Schuldig noticing, he thought. He leaned into him, making it an embrace, a tendril of his power pulling Schuldig's other hand towards him. "Your hair's all full of static," Schuldig said softly, running his hand through it. He blinked suddenly and shook himself, stepping back. "Shit. Sorry. You're just a kid, I'm meant to be taking care of you –"

Nagi stepped forward to keep touching him. He tried to make Schuldig feel as pins-and-needles as he did, and just let himself think loud and clear about how much he loved blowing things up and what it did to him. He was full of nasty, freakish thoughts and desires, and Schuldig had kept him safe before. "I'm not a kid," he said, "I'm a member of Schwarz."

Schuldig shivered, and muttered, "Shit."

"It's nothing I didn't make other kids do for me in Rosenkreuz," Nagi said, pressing close and letting his power flood over Schuldig like a wave of excited pinpricks.

Schuldig groaned and flung his arms round him. The electric feeling was stronger and better from his lips than his fingers. Nagi relaxed into the kiss and then Schuldig's tongue was between his lips and Nagi wasn't relaxed at all, was gripping on hard, fighting almost to press himself through Schuldig. _"Take it easy,"_ Schuldig said, right into his mind, and got enough space to get a hand in between them to pull at Nagi's clothes. There were screams outside, and sirens, and the sounds of masonry settling but inside there was just them, with Nagi frantically moving against Schuldig, against Schuldig's hand, his tongue in Schuldig's mouth. He shuddered, his knees buckling and let himself be supported just by the arm round him. Schuldig carefully moved his hand away and wrapped both arms tight round him for a moment.

"We should move," Schuldig said, his voice overly calm and sensible. "I don't need to be Crawford to know this place'll be crawling with live cops to replace the dead ones."

"Yeah," Nagi breathed, not wanting to move, but doing it anyhow. He tugged down his t-shirt and tugged up his jeans. He slung the backpack on and followed Schuldig out the window.

Schuldig paused, then laughed, short and nasty. Perched on what had once been the corner of the demolished building he peered down, grinning. "Hey, Nagi," he said, his voice full of sudden venom. "The target's kids are still here. Hey, hey, you! I can see your sister's got brains – pity they're leaking all over the pavement. God, people like you make me sick, all this self-pity, all this wondering how you got yourself into such a fucking messed-up situation. Hey, Nagi, if you survived an explosion would you be all, _Why am_ I _left alive? It should be_ her _, oh, wah wah, take me instead of her, whine, moan_?"

"Do you _have_ to tell him my name?" Nagi sniffed.

"Don't worry. He's not taking much in, and I'll wipe that anyway. What to do with you, friend, what to do with you?"

Schuldig half-reached for the gun in his shoulder holster, then stopped, just smiling down at his victim. Nagi moved up so he could see. The teenager below was looking at them dully, like he thought the world had ended. His sister was lying under concrete, her brother clinging to her out-flung hand. They looked like little kids, lost and alone. The boy looked bewildered and sad, like he might cry.

"Fucking _kid_. What a loser," Nagi snarled. "C'mon, let's _go_."

"Yeah. He's just a poor fucking kid," Schuldig said slowly, straightening from his crouch. "He can't help being all fucked up." He stared down at the boy, who blinked and looked all at once even more confused. "Good luck, boy!" he carolled down at the stunned kid, and jumped down, turning to steady Nagi as he landed beside him.

He was quieter than Nagi liked; he should have been full of vicious satisfaction, like he was when he did a job with Crawford. Sometimes people thought too much and made simple things too complicated, Nagi mused. Well, _he_ was in a good enough mood; he could afford to be magnanimous with Schuldig and give him something easier to think about. "I'm still pretty hungry," he said casually as they slipped away, heading for the car.

"Yeah," Schuldig said, managing something like his usual grin. "Damn, I should have packed more sandwiches."

Schuldig sounded better when he could act like he was the one who took care of things, Nagi thought in satisfaction. "Never mind," he said. "Crawford'll let us order in something big, won't he?"

"Yeah," Schuldig said hopefully.

They argued about food most of the way home, Schuldig giving in to almost all of Nagi's preferences. Nagi settled back in the seat, warm and comfortable, feeling like he belonged, like he'd achieved his rightful place at last. _Finally_ , he thought, and graciously allowed Schuldig's opinions on Italian food to go unchallenged, seeing as how Schuldig was meeting his eyes for whole seconds at a time now. He felt really, really good. He felt like an adult.


End file.
